Kostas Nestoridis


Kostas Nestoridis is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a forward. He debuted for the Greek National Football Team in 1951 and won 17 caps for his country, scoring 3 goals.

Career

Born in Drama of Pontian Greek heritage, his family moved to Athens in his youth. Nestoridis began playing youth football with Enosis Ag. Nikolaos Kallithea in 1945, and began playing senior football with Panionios in 1947 at age 17. Nestoridis played for Panionios until 1955, and he began an illustrious career at AEK Athens in 1957, having sat out the 1956 season because Panionios refused to negotiate his transfer to AEK.
"Kapetan Nestoras" started paying dividends almost immediately by winning top scorer honours in Greece for five consecutive seasons from 1958 up until 1963. In total he scored 223 goals in 265 games for AEK Athens, and remains one of the club's highest scoring players of all time, widely regarded by the club's fans as one of the greatest players to ever wear the AEK shirt. He remains the third highest league scorer for AEK Athens, having scored a total of 172 goals in 202 games in the Greek domestic league. He and another AEK Athens' legend, Mimis Papaioannou, formed one of the club's most formidable goal-scoring partnerships. He played for AEK Athens until December 1965 at which point he joined newly promoted Vyzas for one year before retiring.
He took a break from the Greek League in 1966 to play for South Melbourne Hellas where, at age 36, he won top scorer honors yet again, helping the club to the Victorian State League title. Nestoridis rejoined South Melbourne Hellas in 1967 where his team finished 4th in the league competition. His last game for Hellas was in the Dockerty Cup final losing 0–4 to Port Melbourne Slavia. During his two years in Melbourne, Nestoridis drew big crowds wherever Hellas played.
After his playing career was over, Nestoridis coached several clubs including Paniliakos, Kallithea and AEK Athens.

Stats

Honours

AEK Athens
South Melbourne
Individual